Biography

American politician, 39th President of the U.S., sworn in 1/20/1977. After serving in the U.S. Navy 1946-1953, he took over the family peanut business and became a community leader. Entering politics, he was elected Governor of Georgia 1971-1975. Carter was virtually unknown outside of his home state when he began his meteoric rise to become the Head of State.

Son of Earl Carter and Lillian Gordy Carter, Jimmy Carter grew up the eldest of four children. Gloria was born in 1926, Ruth in 1929 and Billy on 3/29/1937. His father instilled the hard-work ethic and desire to excel while Lillian was said to have "gentled" Jimmy by encouraging schoolwork, church and social conscience. Carter knew he wanted to go to Annapolis since childhood. He encountered a difficult "plebe" year in 1943, and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy finishing 59th of a class of 820 in 1946. Unhappy with sea duty on the Wyoming and Mississippi, he went to submarine school, finishing 3rd in a class of 52.

After four happy years in undersea service serving under Admiral Hyman Rickover, he reluctantly returned home to run the family peanut and farming interests when his father died of pancreatic cancer in 1953. He utilized his technical engineering skills, developing the farm into a modernized agribusiness, increasing his father's volume 25 times. After a "deeply profound religious experience" when he turned 40, he devoted himself to the service of helping others by joining missions to Eastern barrios. He served two terms in the state senate and took on an unsuccessful run for Governor against segregationist, Lester Maddox. Learning from his mistakes, he ran an aggressive and successful moderate-conservative campaign in 1970. Measuring himself against visiting Presidents, he concluded he had what it took to run for President. Carter's "good-guy" brand of populism without the taint of George Wallace's racism proved to be just what the American electorate was looking for after Nixon's resignation and Gerald Ford's remaining term. The famous Carter smile concealed a highly competitive, ambitious and independent nature. His defeat to Ronald Reagan in 1980 is attributed to his brusqueness in dealing with Congress, long gasoline lines, and the months-long Iranian crisis. The Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt and resulting treaty, the treaty with China and the Panama Canal treaties are his greatest achievements. He worked for nuclear-arms control and his concern for international human rights was credited with saving lives and reducing torture. Domestically, his environmental record was a major accomplishment. Of his 265 choices for the Federal bench, many included minority members and women.

He married Rosalynn Smith 7/07/1946 and they had four kids: Jack, 1947; James Earl, 1950; Jeffrey, 1952; and Amy, 1967. After his retirement, he and Rosalynn jointly wrote a 1987 best-seller, "Everything to Gain, Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life." They both agreed they had never had more disagreements than during the writing of this book and vowed to never write together again. Jimmy and Rosalynn have remained a team, each working together and separately for their respective causes.

Soundly defeated by Ronald Reagan in 1980, he considered his Presidency a failed one and retired to Plains to find his business in serious jeopardy. He applied his iron will to once again reviving the family business. He created a nonprofit Carter Center dedicated to raising money to fight river blindness in Uganda, helping small farmers triple corn yields in Ghana and Ambia, and is perhaps better known as America's unofficial ambassador for democracy and peace in the Middle East and in Latin America. Americans have become used to seeing Carter pounding nails in homes being built for low-income families across the nation after aligning himself with the project "Habitat for Humanity."

Former President Carter was notified that he won the award at about 4:30 AM on 10/11/2002 according to CNN and he accepted the prize on 12/10/2002 in Oslo. His citation on the Nobel prize website reads: "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development"